Behind the Silver Desk
by TeaAndChemistry
Summary: This Game is not about making friends, and Seneca Crane knows this full well- but what will he do when two unlikely tributes break this unwritten law? A companion piece to Borrow, Blood and Steel.
1. Chapter 1

This story exists as a companion piece to my other story, _Borrow, Blood and Steel_. It is centred around the Capitol's reaction to the alliance between Clove and Foxface.

Before you read this, go back and read up to Chapter 16 of _Borrow, Blood and Steel, _otherwise this won't make any sense whatsoever.

Done that? Good.

As always, I own only this piece of text, not the text it was based off. Reviews are always appreciated.

Seneca Crane was a very busy man. He had an entire city to look after, not to mention 24 murderous kids to keep an eye on. The problem wasn't that they were murderous- it was that they were kids. Crazy kids with stupid ideas. Already he'd had to deal with that troublesome couple from District 12. The girl was especially irritating. She had already escaped death at the Control Room's hand once, and was looking to form dangerous relationships. To make matters worse, the girl's mentor was just as annoying.

"Just give them something to root for." Were Haymitch's final words, the last time he had slipped into the control centre and seized Seneca by the arm, dragged him over to the wall and started begging for the Control Room to leave his precious tributes alone. Seneca had his hands tied, as it was. The people cried for blood- his President cried for blood. In reality, he had only two options; he could take matters into his own hands and put the action into the arena himself, or he could edit what footage the public saw. The former was often easier, but sometimes it made for more boring Games, and that would only serve to make things worse. After the first attempt, Seneca chose to let the Girl on Fire forge her own death. The girl drew a lot of attention, and the more he thought about it, the better keeping her alive looked.

For a while, the Arena seemed to be taking care of itself. There was only one fly in the ointment, one thorn in poor Seneca's side- a strange occurrence, unprecedented in previous Games- the vicious District 2 girl had run off with the elusive and quiet girl from District 5. At first, he let it be. It was a shaky alliance that was sure to dissolve, considering the cunning nature of the District 5 girl and the sadistic predisposition of the girl from 2.

As time passed, Seneca became more and more concerned. The two girls were getting far too close for comfort. It was evident that the alliance between the two was serving a purpose beyond mutual protection and survival. From the footage he had seen, they genuinely appeared to like each other. The girl from 2, in particular, had significantly softened up. Those who had bet hefty sums on her were beginning to get restless, and rightfully so. District 2 had let her guard down and was letting the girl from 5 do all the work. He couldn't let people see this. He had said in his interview with Caesar that the point of the Games was to bring the districts together, but he didn't mean it like this. Whenever a shot of the two girls was broadcast, the Capitol was met with a bitter reception from District 2. He had received notices of recall of sponsorship. As far as the district was concerned, they had been betrayed.

The reception in District 5 was the exact opposite. Never had the Capitol seen more requests for sponsorships towards the District 5 girl. The majority were weapons, letters from the district and, crazily enough, a small, ornately embellished metal key.

Seneca saw both of these movements as dangerous. He withheld all the sponsor gifts for the two and made it clear that he was going to let the Game run its course. One of them would end up dead, and they could do damage control from there.

Of course, that was what he was hoping for. But his hope for such an outcome dwindled late one night with two ironically fatal sentences;

"_I don't think I could kill you, Fox."_

"_If it means anything, hurting you would be an impossibility."_

Oh God. He couldn't let that be seen. Seneca cursed himself for not doing something about it earlier. Now it was out in open air, and he had less than a minute to stop an uproar. Seneca made his way up to the editing booth and barged through the door.

"Don't air that!"

The chief editor swivelled around in his chair. "Why not, Crane? It's gold. What do you want me to do instead? More footage of Two cleaning his sword again?"

Seneca was furious now. "You broadcast that footage, and you answer to President Snow."

The editor nodded numbly, turned back around and deleted the clip from the screen.

Seneca let himself settle a little bit. While the immediate threat was gone, he had to do something about the two girls before it was his head on the platter. He lifted a hand to his earpiece, clicking the button.

"What's the problem, Seneca?"

"Plutarch, call a meeting with the rest of the Gamemakers. Make sure Enobaria's there. Also, as much of a pain as he is, Haymitch might be able to help out here."

"Roger that."

"Oh, and Plutarch?"

"What is it, Crane? Make it quick, I've got some Mutts I need to go tweak with the biodesigners."

"Kindly make sure that President Snow doesn't decide to invite himself along."

"Oh. It's that bad?"

Seneca exhaled. "No, it's not. It's worse."


	2. Chapter 2

So this oneshot turned into a twoshot. I hope you enjoy the conclusion to this short piece. Reviews will be treasured greatly.

If you like this story and its companion, _Borrow, Blood and Steel, _you'll probably like Lulubird's Foxface/Clove story, _A Surprising Alliance _( s/8249841/1/).

"What the hell am I doing here?" Enobaria folded her arms across her chest as she leaned back in the expensive leather chair.

Seneca swallowed and stood to face the conference room of Gamemakers and mentors.

"We have a potential problem with some of the tributes."

Haymitch scoffed and poured himself another scotch- the third in the ten minutes he had been there. "I thought we went over this, Crane, my two have brought in more viewers than any other Gamessince its inception. Isn't that a good thing?"

It was typical of Haymitch to be self-important. "While your two tributes have presented us with issues, Haymitch, we are not gathered to discuss them. I am more concerned about Clove of District 2 and Lorelei of District 5."

Enobaria had her head in her hands. "What in Panem did she do this time? Please don't tell me it's cannibalism. Anything but cannibalism. Gosh, I told her to draw the line at cannibalism!"

"Cannibalism would be easier to control than this. Clove and Lorelei have forged a rather dangerous alliance."

"What's so bad about it, Seneca?" Plutarch had his hands clasped, resting on the table, clearly unconcerned.

"It's not just an alliance, Plutarch. They appear to be, well, friends."

Enobaria let out a throaty laugh, baring her pearl-white filed teeth. "Oh dear. My Clove doesn't make friends. She's not even friendly with Cato."

Seneca lifted his tablet from the conference table and pulled his collection of footage of the two girls over to the big screen.

"What you're about to see is classified- it does not leave this room."

He clicked his fingers and the lights dimmed. The CCTV cameras shut off and the montage of clips played. It earned gasps from almost everyone in the room.

When the lights lifted, he found Enobaria's fist twisted in his shirt. "Why was I not made aware of this before? She's my bloody tribute!"

"Nobody could know. I broadcast as little as I could, otherwise we'd have uprisings on our hands- again." Seneca shot a look at Haymitch. Of course, it wasn't his fault that District 11 was rioting. He didn't tell his tribute to lay flowers on the grave of the dead girl. All the same, Haymitch was someone to blame, someone who could carry some of the crushing responsibility.

Enobaria reluctantly let Seneca loose, before resuming her seat. "What do you suggest we do? Kill off Five?"

"That would look far too suspicious." Plutarch interjected. "What we need is a situation change. We need to turn them against each other somehow. We can't break their alliance externally."

"Well, from the looks of it, it's not going to be that easy. You can break someone on a physical level, but when a connection is emotional, it becomes a lot more... delicate." Seneca was pacing now. What on Earth could he do to split the pair inconspicuously before they did some serious damage and made more District 11s?

"You could always change the rules." Haymitch drawled, staring into the dregs of his scotch.

That was it. He could change the Game up. It was perfect. He could pass it off as a move to draw more attention to District 12. Regardless of how unpredictable the Girl on Fire was, she would be easier to control than the girls from 2 and 5.

"Haymitch, you drunk idiot, you're a genius."

"How long did that take you to figure out?" The cornsilk-haired drunkard tipped the last of the scotch down his throat.

"They want each other to survive, right? So if their only survival tactic is to be independent of each other, that's all we have to do- split them up."

"What are you talking about, Seneca?" Enobaria's haughty brow was lifted high.

Seneca was grinning now. "We drive Clove back to Cato by changing the rules. Two tributes may win if they come from the same district. Either way, one district wins. It's good news for Twelve, too- might be able to draw in some more viewers."

"Seneca, we can't just change the rules like that. Snow would have our heads."

"Don't worry, Plutarch, it's only a temporary revision. A mind game, if you would. The Capitol will have their victor- their lone victor- and with any luck, it'll all blow over with minimal resistance. All in favour of the, ahem, "rule change"?"

The mentors enthusiastically lifted their hands, along with most of the Gamemakers.

"Those against?"

Plutarch lifted his hand. "You're shooting yourself in the foot here, Seneca."

"Doesn't matter, majority rules. I'll let Claudius know immediately. Meeting adjourned."


End file.
